From the 1960s: Pollyanna

1960 Family Comedy Drama
From Disney 
Novel by Eleanor Porter
Adapted by David Swift
Directed by David Swift

Starring
Hayley Mills
Jane Wyman
Richard Egan
Karl Malden
Nancy Olson
Adolphe Menjou
Donald Crisp
Agnes Moorehead
Kevin Corcoran
James Drury
Reta Shaw
Leora Dana
Anne Seymour
Edward Platt
Mary Grace Canfield

Here's a movie for these trying times, something that makes every effort to bring glad tidings as you self-isolate.  I'm not suggesting by any means that this is the only thing or only movie to relieve any anxieties but damn if they didn't try their best to make one feel a whole lot better.

Who could do such a thing any better than the Disney folks?  And who better to star than one of Uncle Walt's favorite performers of all time, Hayley Mills.  In her first American movie, the studio did everything it could to rev up the public for his 14-year old star who looked younger.  It was easy to see Walt's ingenuity and Mills's irresistible charm.  She won a special Oscar for the outstanding juvenile performance of 1960.  I should think she would.  

Eleanor Porter wrote her classic children's tale in 1913 and it was turned into a silent film seven years later with Mary Pickford.  It seems odd that it took 40 years to film it again but then again, here was Hayley Mills, arguably perhaps the second most famous child star in Hollywood history poised to take the reins.  The name Pollyanna has come to mean an excessively or blindly optimistic person and based on the name of Porter's popular character.

The tale concerns a poor girl recently orphaned who comes to live
with her wealthy and starchy Aunt Polly (Wyman) in a town full of curmudgeons at the turn of the century.  It seems everyone is crabby and finding the glass as half empty.  Pollyanna, with her winsome optimism, charms them all.  It takes two hours and 14 minutes to complete the task but it is well worth the wait.

The name of the town is Harrington which just happens to be the last name of Aunt Polly.  She runs things and most all are greatly concerned of running afoul of her.  She lives in a beautiful mansion and holds court there with city officials.

Pollyanna, nosy and highly imaginative, immediately notices how crotchety Aunt Polly's female servants are.  Head cook Tillie (Shaw) lays out the rules, sourpuss maid Angelica (Canfield) obviously dislikes children and doesn't change her attitude until the end of the story.  Another maid Nancy (Olson) is also standoffish and impatient with the girl despite being put in charge of her.  When Pollyanna catches Nancy smooching with boyfriend George (Drury), strictly forbidden by Aunt Polly, and keeps her silence, a friendship is forged with her young charge.

Pollyanna teaches them how to play the Glad Game, which her minister father taught her.  It's most useful when things are down, she says, and you need something to feel glad about.

Dr. Chilton (Egan) has come back to town, causing whispers among the gossips as to why that's happened.  It seems he used to enjoy a romance with Polly but after it ended, he left town.  Now back after five years, he's looking to see if anything has changed with her.  His initial scenes with the Pollyanna, who's hiding behind a giant indoor plant as her aunt lectures town leaders in her parlor, are adorable.  He is one person who could teach the glad game himself.

In short time, Pollyanna runs across a orphan Jimmy (Corcoran), a rare cheerful resident despite having the most to be down about.  The pair of them come across the meanest man in town (Menjou), an old recluse and of course she charms him as well because she asks if she can come back for another visit.  The two youngsters discover the joy of prisms hanging from lamps in the old man's dusty manor.

Moorehead just got glad

She then runs across a cantankerous, bedridden woman (Moorehead) who is obsessed with dying.  It seems obvious that all she needs is a little love and attention and of course Pollyanna is just the girl to deliver it.

Then there's the minister (Malden) who preaches fire and brimstone with a voice that shakes the rafters.  He's also under the thumb of Polly.  He, too, will fall under the young girl's spell.  See clip at the end.

The formidable town mayor (Crisp), who doesn't like Polly and takes her on, wants to put on a bazaar in the town square to earn enough money to build a much-needed new orphanage which she is opposed to.  She turns down all requests.  Nothing moves forward until Pollyanna says no one owns the church.  That brings about a loving, quiet sermon from the pastor who also tells his congregation about the proposed bazaar.  It is on.

Still, Aunt Polly has forbidden her niece to attend, despite the fact that Pollyanna has been rehearsing a song.  While Aunt Polly is seen reading, her staff is readying for their departure to the bazaar.  Pollyanna decides to ignore her aunt's wishes.  She climbs onto a tree branch outside her bedroom window and sets into motion the film's teary but ultimately joyous conclusion.  After watching the movie, I re-watched the last 15 minutes again.  I'm always glad to enjoy a tear-stained ending, however deliberate it may be.

I admit I am a sucker for this time period... the early 1900s when life was like it was in Meet Me in St. Louis.  I have never known life like that, except in the movies. We never left our doors unlocked and open while gone.  Migawd, they leave a dozen wrapped purchases in an open-air car in the heart of town and walk away.  I love all the basic goodness, kindness and decency.  

I had only a vague idea of who Hayley Mills was when I saw the film although I'd heard the hoopla.  I knew she was British and from acting royalty.  She seemed so normal up there on that big screen, a lilting presence shining an unaffected light on... well, being normal.  Teenage girls considered her a treasure from this film right through her brief but luminous Hollywood career.  Co-star Malden liked her a great deal.  The clip of their scene at the end of this thing was the first one Mills filmed.

Mills brings Pollyanna colorfully to life.  She is no less than radiant with her bright and crisp diction, her sense of humor including a lot of facial business, her barrage of questions, her subtle suggestions to adults for improvement and always showing that suspicion that she knows more than she's telling.  It's really a lovely performance and Disney would put her to good use in five more films.  I've always wished she'd kept up her American career because I very much enjoyed her as an adult actress in the few things I've seen.

Jane Wyman as Polly Harrington

And what's more, Mills is backed up by solid talent.  Wyman did a quick two-film stay with Disney and she loved making the movie.  Disney treated his visiting stars very well, although not in the pay department.  She liked her role, loved the clothes and had reunions with many in the large cast.  Polly is a woman who's always on-guard, is not able to express love and is stern.  She's in no way the villain of the piece simply because there is no villain of the piece.

Egan, too, thought virtually the same as Wyman.  When he was in a nice-guy role, for my money, Egan was unbeatable.  There are those polished manners, tanned face, dancer's walk, bright smile and one of the best voices on the planet (damn, sounds like I should have started a fan club or something) and there's no doubt why he was hired to play one of the bright spots in the town.

This was Malden's first trip to Disney as well and he also reported what a treat it all was.  I liked his character because it showed the most growth.  He played the glad game and won.  This is one of the great Malden yelling movies of which there are many.  Here, of course, it's done in the context of delivering a robust sermon but when the  chandeliers sway, you understand.  He is one of my favorite character actors ever.

Nancy Olson I immensely enjoyed, too.  She was one of the best things about the male-oriented Battle Cry.  She'd also worked with Wyman in 1953 in the popular So Big.  Beautiful as a blonde, she is the romantic lead (sorry Jane) and lemme tell you, she and James Drury look mighty fine together and their scenes brighten things up.  Olson would go on to grace other Disney films.

Egan holding Mills, Olson & Drury

The movie is loaded with wonderful character actors.  Moorehead, of course, knew how to nail the wicked witch roles.  When her character ultimately gets glad, the actress could sure go tender.  She was a lucky charm for most all her movies.  This was the last of five costarring ventures with her real-life good friend Wyman.

Menjou never did anything for me except in this movie, his last.  But that snarling old hermit shows a gleam in his eye now and then, more for the camera than anything, and it was kinda heart-warming.  In the end he sells designs of prisms at the bazaar.
He even adopts little Jimmy who's begging for someone to love him.  I'll tell you... you gotta be hard to not have your heart beating a little faster here and there.  No, wait, not you.  I didn't mean you.  Well, I never even... I mean, I don't even know you.  Really.

Corcoran turns in his signature performance... the scruffy, mischievous, often shoeless quasi-brat.  I thought he was always fun.

Donald Crisp was always a joy playing characters who were unsettled in some way.  He spoke with such authority.  I always think of him, however, as an actor in animal movies.

I'll tell you, that supporting cast is seamless as well.  It seems only right that a movie about being glad was filmed at a studio where they were glad to work.

David Swift adapted Porter's novel for the screen and made his film debut as a director as well.  He and the other newbie would partner again the following year for The Parent Trap.

Diehard fans of the film would probably disagree but I thought it just a tad too long and a little more work needed on pacing.  Regardless, this is a childhood favorite whose simple message I hold near and dear.  It's a sunny, lovely film to look at thanks to Russell Harlan's Technicolor cameras and yummy art and set direction.  I especially loved the Santa Rosa, California mansion that served as Wyman's home. 

In front of library at Littleton, New Hampshire

Pollyanna is a children's movie but at its heart it's a film for the child in all of us.  I just spent 134 minutes forgetting the woes of the world and I loved every minute of it.  Sure it's sentimental, touching and heartfelt but what's wrong with that... especially now?  I should think its hopeful message is lost on no one who sees it.

Reviewing the movie at this time is for my cousin Jane whose birthday it is today.  The film and Hayley Mills have always held a special place in her heart.  Happy, happy birthday, cuz.

Here's one of my favorite scenes:

P.S.  Lincoln never said it.



Next posting:
Another film from the 60s